A Steady Place to Land
by itsquiethere
Summary: All Akane wanted was to avoid her duties to the clan and continue running missions for the ANBU until she dropped dead of exhaustion. Now, thanks to Itachi's lovely little psychotic break, she can't do either of those things. Saddled with responsibility she never asked for, she decides she's going to do the best she can for Sasuke, and herself. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hi! This is my first fanfic and I'd really appreciate some feedback! I am always going back and editing, changing bits here and there, constantly trying to improve.

I have been mostly typing this up on my phone, and autocorrect is apparently not a Naruto fan, so there may be a few spelling and/or grammar errors I haven't caught. I do regularly go back and fix these when I see them but some slip through the cracks.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy reading as much as I'm enjoying writing!

* * *

She comes of age on a battlefield; surrounded by death, covered in the blood of her enemies as well as that of her comrades.

She ducks under a blow meant to sever her head from her shoulders, smoothly transitioning into a slash up with her wakizashi, slicing her opponent's torso from hip to shoulder. The man drops, and she moves onto the next. She dances through the battlefield, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake. She cannot think on what it is exactly that she is doing, how many live she has taken. She must focus on living from one moment to the next, surviving, taking down the adversary in front of her, moving on to the next.

Her eyes bleed red for the first time.

She is nine years old, and she cannot count the lives she has taken with her own two hands.

* * *

"The war is over!" The Hokage, standing on the roof of the Tower, addresses the citizens of Konoha, ninja and civilian alike. "This is a joyous day. Our troops will all be returning home from the front."

Her mother will not come home, nor her genin teammates and sensei. They did not survive to see her sharingan awakened, to see her promoted to chunin in the field, to see the end of the war.

She is twelve, and she is alone.

* * *

"The clan began taking care of you when your father was killed in action, and provided for your mother before you were born. Since your mother's death, the clan has equipped you with a reasonable stipend for your rent and living expenses, until you could provide for yourself, never asking anything in return. Now that you have been promoted to jonin, the clan has need of you."

"A simple thing," the clan head tells her.

He asks that now that she has been promoted to jonin, she join ANBU. ANBU was what she was planning on anyway, but it would have been her own decision, not the clan's. Something to call her own. Now she doesn't even have that.

She knows what they are really asking of her. She knows they are asking her to keep them informed on ANBU matters. Report her missions to the clan. Answer to the clan before her ANBU superiors, before the Hokage.

She is fifteen, and she must choose between loyalty to her village, and loyalty to her clan.

It is not a choice she makes lightly.


	2. Chapter 2

She looks down on her target from behind her mask, crouched on a branch high above the road on which they walk, unaware of her presence. The setting sun glints off the white mask in the shape of a cat, decorated with two red lines extending from the underside of each eye outwards towards the temple. Her long, black hair, pulled back in a high tail, brushes her back as she tilts her head, listening for any extraneous sounds.

Her target is a group of nuke-nin that have been terrorizing a village on the northern border of Fire Country. The mission scroll was pretty bare bones, as almost all of the ones she is given are. It contained their names, where available, skill level, where available, possible contacts, the area in which they were last seen, and the objective: neutralize the targets. That is all the information she needs. She has been tracking them for a month, and now she is confident that finishing this won't take long.

She follows them, observing their patterns, their routine, the way they interact with their surroundings. The more she knows about them, about their minds, the easier this will be. She has been watching them travel this road since dawn, and now, as the sun begins to sink below the horizon, she finds herself ready to complete her task.

She rises to her feet and leaps from her perch, landing in a crouch on a branch not far from where her targets are beginning to set up camp for the night. It is time to finish this. She stills her chakra, pulling it further inside herself until even a seasoned sensor could not discern her from the forest life surrounding her. The mission scroll did not identify any of the nin as particularly strong sensors, but better safe than sorry, she thinks. The last time she did not prepare for the worst... well, she learned her lesson.

Her sharingan blazes, three tomoe spinning as she preforms her hand signs. The targets still, eyes widening, then going blank, mouths opening in soundless screams. She drops to the ground behind the first man, silently drawing her weapon from the holster on her hip, she removes his head in one stroke and proceeds to take care of the rest. She wipes her weapon clean on his vest and replaces is it into her holster. Once the bodies are sealed into her mission scroll, she begins to clear the scene. The preparations for their camp she scatters, until there is no proof anyone was here at all, the quiet of the forest reclaiming the spot. With her mission complete, she begins the journey home.

* * *

It takes her eight days to make it back to the village, arriving just as the stars are beginning to appear in the evening sky. She dashes into the village through one of the ANBU entrances and makes her way across the rooftops to ANBU HQ where she drops off the completed mission scroll. She will turn in her full report tomorrow. Once the scroll is in the hand of her commanding officer, she heads to the locker room to change.

She removes her mask. Large dark eyes surrounded by long, curling lashes are revealed. The eyes are set into a pale, narrow face with pronounced cheekbones, the lines too sharp to be considered pretty, though she is not without beauty. This is her face, though she so rarely sees it, hidden behind her ANBU mask. This is the face of Akane Uchiha.

Akane reaches up and shakes out her bangs, tightens her ponytail, and begins to remove her armor. Chest plate, arm guards, leg braces, and mask go into the locker, a too-large knobbly sweater that looks to have seen better days comes out and is thrown on over her black, sleeveless, high necked under armor. She shuts the locker, and begins to head home.

She keeps her face blank and her eyes forward as she continues through the village. She has no one to greet, no one worth showing a smile. Right now, all she wants is to crawl into her bed and sleep. She sighs at the thought of pulling the blankets up to her chin, curling in on herself, and feeling truly warm and comfortable for the first time in weeks.

Akane passes through the archway decorated with her clan's symbol, the uchiwa fan. She keeps her head down, hoping to avoid the notice of the elders, or any busy bodies who might report her return to the elders. She hasn't reported any of her missions lately, or gone to the clan meetings being held in the shrine. She's been out of the village as often as possible, hoping to avoid the tension that has been building in the village and the district. She feels it now, the anger and resentment, the frustration and pain of her clan. They feel disrespected, overlooked. They feel as though their rights as one of the founding clans have been trampled. She doesn't want to get involved.

A few blocks in, and she reaches her building. The lights are out in the old woman's grocery on the ground floor, so she takes the stairs two at a time until she reaches her door. She unlocks it, and steps inside.

Her apartment is small and bare, barely appearing as though anyone lives there. She heads to her bedroom, undresses and goes to take a shower. After her shower, she puts on her softest pajamas and climbs under the covers. Cocooning herself in their soft warmth, she falls asleep.

When she awakes, it is midday. Quietly cursing the necessity of getting out of bed, she stretches, then rolls out. She dresses quickly, pulling on another over-sized sweater on top of a pair of soft stretchy pants. She hears a knock on the door and goes to answer it. No one is there, but there are two bento stacked with a note on top sitting on her doorstep. She smiles. She doesn't need taking care of, but no matter how many times Akane tells the old woman, she persists. Akane sighs and picks up the boxes, putting one away for later. She smiles at the note. Fumiyo-baa-chan is her great aunt twice removed on her mother's side and won't let her forget that they are family. Akane will begrudgingly admit that it's nice to have baa-chan around, if only for her cooking.

She settles herself at the kitchen table to eat her bento, and write her mission report. She keeps it precise and filled with the necessary amount of details. Once done, she rolls up the report, and sets it aside. She finished eating and after cleaning up and setting the box aside to give back to Fumyo-baa-chan later, she heads to ANBU HQ to turn in her mission report.

* * *

She arrives back at her apartment fuming. They wont give her another mission yet.

"You need to spend at least a week in the village. You're an important asset. We can't have you burning out." Like they really care if she buns out or not. Like _she_ cares if she burns out. It's going to be a long week.

Akane settles on the couch, wrapping herself in the soft blanket that she keeps over the back of the over stuffed piece of furniture. She grabs a book off the shelf behind her, A Comprehensive Study of the Politics of The Land of Iron, and begins to read. As she turns the pages, absorbing new information, she begins to calm. A gradual stillness washes over Akane. Her posture relaxes as she lets out a deep breath. She can use the time off to catch up on reading. She has those new romance novels and a few new books on the surrounding countries to get through. Plenty to distract herself from her own thoughts. It will be fine.

* * *

The sun has slipped below the horizon and night is settling in when she hears a muffled shout from outside. That's strange, she thinks. There shouldn't be anyone on the street at this hour. She looks up from her book and notices just how quiet it has gotten. There is a pressure in the air, a weight. She hears a scream.

She grabs a stray kunai and goes to investigate.

She doesn't realize that as soon as she steps out of her door, her life will never be the same.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter has been updated and lengthened as of 3/15/18

Chapter edited as of 4/6/18

* * *

Akane opened her eyes.

That's novel, she thought. She never thought she'd be able to do that again. She reached up to touch her fingers to her throat and found bandages. She winced. It really did happen.

"Uchiha-san, you're awake." Akane turned her head to face the door. A medic walked into the room and began checking her over.

"Were there any other survivors?" Akane croaked. She probably should not be speaking yet, especially given the death glare the medic was sending her way, but she needed to know. She remembers bodies lining the streets, blood pooling in the gutters. He had mentioned his brother before he...

"Please, don't speak Uchiha-san. Your throat suffered major trauma and healing it took several hours. I'd rather not have to repeat the process." Akane looked at her expectantly, raising a disdainful eyebrow. She didn't care about that. She asked a question. It needed answering.

"I'm sorry, only young Sasuke-kun and you survived."

Akane went still. _So it's true_ , she thinks. _He left his brother, and her. Why her?_

"Please. Take care of my outoto," he'd whispered in her ear, while his tanto was slicing through the skin of her throat. She almost hadn't heard him over the sound of her own flesh rending, her own blood spraying outward, and hadn't had time to think on the meaning of those words right then, what with (almost) dying, but now, it made sense.

Uchiha Itachi did not make mistakes. He left her alive for a reason. In the middle of what Akane could only assume was a psychotic break brought on by stress and untreated trauma he had the wherewithal, the deep seated love, to make sure that his brother was cared for.

 _He must have known that even after killing their entire clan, he couldn't kill his brother,_ she thought. _He must have thought his brother would need someone._

But why her? Akane was not closely related to the main family, she wasn't important in the clan. In fact, she made a point to avoid the main family and elders. She avoided contact with anyone except...

She couldn't think about that. Akane couldn't think about the only person she had left lying dead, throat slit, blood pooling in the doorway of the store she cared so much for. She won't think about it.

She needed to think about Sasuke. He was her responsibility now. She had only ever met him once, when he was too young to remember. She thought he might know who she is, but not enough to trust her, to be comfortable with her. And she was certainly not comfortable. She'd never really been around children, never felt sure of herself around them, even when she was a child. She was wholly unprepared, wholly terrified.

"Where is he," she asked. "Where is Sasuke?" Her voice coming out steadier than she felt.

"He's still unconscious, and we are not sure when he will wake up, though we are hopeful it will be soon. Young minds heal much faster from genjutsu trauma like this than an adult mind would."

That utter bastard. He tortured his own brother. What kind of monster-

The kind who can murder their entire clan in one night. She could not think of him in any terms but that now. He was not her colleague in ANBU, he was not her distant cousin. He was a monster and must be put down.

"I want to see him."

"Of course, as soon as you are able to get out of bed."

The days passed in a blur. Akane was left alone with her thoughts more often than not. Her recovery was slow, but steady, and within a week she was finally able to get out of bed.

 _He looks so small,_ she thought, staring down at the 6 year old lying unconscious in the hospital bed next to hers. They'd rolled her in here when she was finally unhooked from the machines, only the IV tube left tying her down.

He was so fragile, so breakable, and had lost everything. She knows what it's like, to lose everyone you've ever cared about, to be alone. She really is the best option for his guardian. She can do this, she decided. She could help him. _As long as he's not as much of a surly bastard as I am,_ she thought, _we should be fine._ She had a basic knowledge of psychology, not in depth, or anything about child psychology, but enough of a base that learning what she needed to know to make sure Sasuke didn't grow up to be like his brother shouldn't be impossible.

That would be her new goal, her new mission, she decided. And she knew where to start.

Her lips dragged upwards into a facsimile of a smile.

 _I'm going to need a lot of new books._

* * *

The first time Akane saw her reflection after the bandages on her neck had been removed, she was not surprised, just slightly disappointed. There, in the mirror of her room in the hospital, her face stared back at her; the jutting cheekbones, sharp chin, her dark, too large eyes blinking back at her. She had been told all her life that she was uncommonly plain for an Uchiha. She knew it was true, but she had always liked her sharp face. _It sets me apart from the others-_

 _It_ set _her apart from the others,_ she reminds herself. Now it just served as another reminder that she is not who Sasuke wants to see, another difference to create distance between them. She could not really remind him of his own, closest relationships.

Maybe that's a good thing, she thought. Maybe he might not want any reminders.

She couldn't avoid them. The most obvious one was written on her skin.

Her eyes darted down to look at her neck, where the bandage no longer covered the slightly pink skin. Her wound seemed almost fully healed from the outside, but she knew it needed more healing on the inside. The neck had many very delicate, intricate, systems inside that needed more time to heal fully. At least she wasn't still confined to her bed.

"The wonders of medical ninjutsu," the doctors said. She knew better. Itachi knew what he was doing. He had to have let her live, he would not have made a mistake like that.

A straight line, about 1 cm thick ran from one side of her neck to the other, bisecting her jugular. It served as a stark reminder of what she survived.

The people she knew since she was a child, the people who, though she was not overly fond of them, or they her, had watched Akane grow up, were all gone.

Everyone she had grown up surrounded by, the only people who truly knew her, were all gone. She may not have cared all that much about most of them, even actively tried to avoid them quite regularly, but they were her family, her clan, and they were all gone.

Including her last truly important person. The one who had made sure Akane was fed and not bleeding out in her apartment when she was running one mission after the other. The last one who had truly cared about Akane for her own sake, not what she could do for the clan or the village, and Akane could not save her.

With that thought, the image of her beloved grandmother figure crumpling to the ground, the sound of her scream, never fully forming in her abruptly severed throat, dissolving into a gurgle, the teenage boy, her better in every way, staring Akane down with his red eyes, his mangekyo spinning rapidly. In that moment as she felt the blood splatter over her face, Akane realized she was utterly helpless. She had let the only person she cared about die. She was going to die.

Before her baa-chan hit the floor, he was behind her, knife to her throat. Akane knew she was going to die. He whispered something in her ear and he began to slide the knife-

She was startled out of her all too vivid memory by a sharp pain and movement near the reflection of her eyes: her sharingan was glowing out at her from the mirror.

Her eyes were changing.

The three tomoe spun rapidly, until they moved so fast they appeared a blurry ring. A shooting pain lanced through her brain, right behind her eyes. They begun to bleed. Before she could realize what was happening, the spinning slowed, and a new shape had formed. In her stunned state, she likened the shape to a chrysanthemum unfolding, with overlapping outlines of petals. She thought that if it wasn't so horrifying, it could be considered beautiful.

This was the mangekyo sharingan. This was an ability she'd hoped never to possess. Her mother had told her the story when she was eight years old, a month before she was killed on a battlefield, hundreds of miles away.

The panic subsided, replaced by grief and exhaustion, the mangekyo along with it.

Akane let herself cry for a long moment, let herself feel the loss and desolation. Then she took a deep breath and put those thoughts aside, as much as she could, for now. It wasn't an entirely healthy coping mechanism, compartmentalization, she rationalized, but it wouldn't do her any good to break down now. She had far too much to do before she could afford to let herself fully begin to unload everything.

The first thing she found that she could do anything about at the moment, was to figure out a way to hide the scar. Sasuke could wake up at any time, the doctors said, and she knew the stark line across her throat, still an angry pink for now, would at best scare the boy and at worst remind him of what his brother had done, and he didn't need either of those things.

 _It seems like I'm going to have to start wearing turtlenecks. Or find a thick enough necklace to cover it,_ she thought. It couldn't get in the way if she had to answer a summons for a mission immediately. Akane thought she might remember her mother wearing something like that. She decided she'd have to look in her jewelry box. It was once her mother's, and her mother's before her. It contains the few family heirlooms her particular (very minor) matrilineal line of the clan owned. Among her favorite items were the earrings her great great grandmother war into battle (she was said to have been a practical woman and her weaponized choice of ear adornment proved it.) and her mother's wedding ring. Many other trinkets of lesser monetary value and everyday uses were stored there. She hoped to find a more permanent solution there.

She was scheduled for release tomorrow. She planned to head home, take a quick shower to wash the hospital off, grab a few changes of clothes, and hit up a book store on her way back to the hospital. She would be damned if Sasuke had to wake up alone after what he'd been through. She remembers how that had felt, where her mind had gone when she woke up completely alone in a hospital room after her last battle in the war, knowing she was alone in the world. She wouln't ever let him feel that way if she could help it.


	4. Chapter 4

Content warnings for this chapter include swearing. I probably shouldn't have to tell you, since this is a Mature story, but just wanted to cover all my bases.

I'll try to put any warnings pertaining to the chapters starting now, just let me know if I leave something off, please. I know I've tagged this story Mature, but it's just common decency, so I'll be attempting to do it every time. I've got PTSD and major anxiety so I know how much it sucks to be reading and be surprised by something triggering.

I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. I keep trying to rework it and have deleted it and rewrote it multiple times but it's been a while since I posted a new chapter, and I think I just need to move on and come back to it later since it's got me so stuck. Hopefully moving past this chapter will help with updating more regularly, but I'm not going to be assigning myself deadlines for posting, knowing my history with deadlines.

It will be edited and improved later when I have more written and can find the motivation.

Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you feel so inclined!

* * *

Sasuke woke with a scream.

Akane struggled to untuck her tangled limbs from the tight shape she had curled into. She had been living in a hospital provided visitor's chair, pulled close to Sasuke's bedside since she was released from her own hospital bed. Akane wondered the day before if the chairs were made purposely uncomfortable to make sure family and friends only stayed to visit for the designated visiting hours. That sounded like something the medics would come up with. They were an underhanded lot, as far as she had experienced.

She tumbled out of the chair and to Sasuke's side, placed her hands lightly, but firmly on his upper arms to calm his thrashing. She tried to remember what the books had said about calming a child in the midst of a panic attack. The books said physical contact was important for children suffering from trauma, but not to overwhelm them. That's a start, she decided.

"It's okay, Sasuke. You are experiencing normal symptoms of a panic attack and they will pass in a few minutes.

"You are safe here. You are safe here," she repeated softly, voice steady and calm. She didn't feel steady or calm, but she at least had to try and make it seem that way to her young charge. His heart rate began to slow along with his breathing. She could no longer feel his pulse thrumming against her hands on his arms. Once his pulse and breathing had slowed to a rate she felt was closer to normal, she took a step back and sat down in her chair again, giving him the space the books said he may need.

The silence stretched. Akane didn't know how to start this very hard conversation. She'd never been very good at communicating with others, her genin team only functioned well because they had gotten to know her and her idiosyncrasies, and there had been very few people in her life since all her teammates had died in the last war. She had no idea what to say, how to tell this poor boy that he was alone except for her, a distant cousin who he had only met once when he was too young to remember. Luckily for her, Sasuke took the initiative and asked the first question.

"I'm in the hospital?"

"Yes." That was easy enough. Maybe she should let him ask the questions to start? One of her books on child psychology had mentioned that letting the child lead a conversation was a good way to make sure they felt in control and listened to.

He didn't respond, so she let the quiet lie for a while, let him adjust to his reality a bit. The silence stretched once again. Neither able to really look at the other for any length of time. Finally, Akane decided that he probably wasn't going to keep talking. She took a deep breath, and dove into what would hopefully not be the most awkward and difficult conversation she'd ever have to have.

"Do you remember what happened?"

There was a long pause.

"Yes."

There was silence for a moment until Sasuke spoke again, his voice breaking. "I thought he'd killed everyone."

"No. I'm still here, but... we're the only ones."

Another long pause.

"What happens next?"

 _A smart question_ , Akane thinks. _He's being logical about this. That can either be a good sign, or a terrible one. We'll just have to see._

"I will help you however you need. I promise I will be there for you in whatever way you need."

Sasuke went quiet for a while, processing. After a long moment he blushed, embarrassed.

"I know I've met you before, but... I can't remember your name," he finally replies.

"Akane. My name is Akane."

 _Off to an okay start,_ she thinks. _H_ _opefully. Fingers crossed._

* * *

Akane found out early on that the copious amount of child psychology books she had purchased were only going to help so much. They were mostly written by civilians, for civilians. Ninja psychology was not really a large or intensely studied field, which seemed pretty stupid to Akane. She had hoped that her lack of mental care after the war and her various breakdowns after joining ANBU had been an outlier. She had thought that of course since ninja children went through so many more traumas than the average child that obviously, their mental health would be cared for as much as their physical health. She had thought her clan had kept the professionals from helping her because they were misguidedly protecting clan secrets. To learn that it hadn't been her clan failing her, that there was no actual support system for shinobi children besides their own families, was a shock to say the least. Family could be a great help, her ( _easily attained, readily available_ ) books had said, but people, especially children, need professional help as well. And what about orphans? Orphans weren't rare in shinobi society, especially following a war or disaster of the caliber of the Nine Tails attack. What were they supposed to do? Pretend nothing was wrong? Bottle everything up until they had a psychotic break and kill their whole families?

 _Oh. That's what happened to_ _Itachi_ , she thought. He never had anyone looking out for his mental health. The system in place had failed him, and would fail so many others.

She wouldn't fail Sasuke. Sasuke would grow up to be as well adjusted as any ninja could hope to be. She would make sure of it. He would be listened to, and cared for, and loved. She would never fail him like so many others had failed Itachi, had failed her. Sasuke would be okay, if she had any say in the matter. _And I do,_ she thought smugly, _I'm his guardian._

 _Oh fuck. I'm his guardian._

Akane decided to just keep reading the civilian books and try to tailor the knowledge to Sasuke's situation the best she could. Maybe she should keep track of their progress, to refer back to later, or maybe it would be helpful to others in the future.

 _Hopefully this will help more than hurt him._

After Sasuke was released from the hospital, Akane found them a small house at the outskirts of the district, but still inside the walls. It was important to both of them to continue living in the district, as the last of their clan, but they couldn't live, couldn't begin to heal, where there had been so much of their own blood shed.

It was a hard adjustment for both of them, but especially Sasuke, Akane noticed. She had already dealt with the loss of those closest to her, and really only had the one person she cared about left before the massacre. Sasuke had lost everyone, and he'd never had to experience loss before. No one of any personal importance to him had died in his living memory. Her books had mentioned this. He had never had the chance to develop a healthy grieving process, and if she knew anything about Itachi (she thought she had known at least something of him, but had obviously been very wrong before), he had never had one modeled for him by those around him. She decided that her own rather unhealthy grieving process was not going to cut it. She had to show Sasuke how to be a healthy, well adjusted person.

 _I'm so screwed._

* * *

Akane knew she would be spending most of her time in the house and around the village. Not mentioning the downtime she would need to fully heal her own injuries, she was going to be Sasuke's sole guardian. He would start back at the academy in a month, but she couldn't keep running missions for ANBU at the pace she had been. She might not even be able to stay in ANBU at all. She would be confined to the village, confined to the house most likely. She wouldn't have any reason to leave. Maybe when Sasuke was back at the academy during the day, she could see about taking some close to home, very short term, missions once he got used to school again. She remembered how her own mother leaving on missions for long stretches of time felt. She'd been so alone as a child. She wouldn't leave Sasuke like that if she could help it.

In the meantime, she would make the house as homey as possible. If she was going to be spending a lot of time here, it may as well be nice. She never had any reason to personalize or spend much time in her old apartment; she was only ever in it to recover between missions.

She painted the walls a calming sage green, and set up bookshelves in every room to accommodate her extensive collection. She took Sasuke with her to pick out the comfiest couches she could find, that were within their (not modest, they were all that was left of a founding clan) budget, bought copious blankets for draping over the backs of said couches, and tricked out Sasuke's bedroom to his specifications.

He really didn't have much to say on the matter when she first asked, didn't want to get involved or go out shopping with her, which she could understand. His actions made perfect sense. Her own experience, as well as her books had told her to expect as much. She gave him his space at first, gave him time to adjust to his new surroundings, get used to her, but after a week, Akane gently prodded until he was following along on shopping trips and oh so casually placing things in her basket. Her books had said that children suffering from trauma needed to feel involved in decisions that affected them and needed to be able to control their own space. That made sense, she decided. It was about the time her mother died that she had started implementing her own system of traps in her space, be that at her camp on missions or her apartment in the village, her own way to exert control. So, she figured, letting Sasuke help decorate their new home was a very healthy decision.

* * *

The timing of her meeting with the Hokage was as close to perfect as they were going to get. She was summoned two weeks after Sasuke was discharged from the hospital, the messenger arriving just after she had declared the house was as ready as it was going to get.

(As many surfaces nap ready as possible," Akane had explained in a very serious tone to Sasuke, and he laughed for the first time since the massacre. She thought her heart would burst.)

Sasuke was doing really well, she thought as she followed the genin messenger back to the Tower. He was very quiet and seemed to value his time spent alone in his room, which the books said was not abnormal. He also had a tendecy to be very physically clingy, following her into almost every room, giving her very little personal space, and she had often found him sleeping in her bed after their first night in the new house. The books said this was also normal, so she accepted the behavior and reciprocated the physical affection as much as she could.

She was getting better at it, she thought hopefully. She'd only ever really cuddled with her mother, who was gone on missions more often than not, and had died when she was still quite young, so she really didn't have much experience with it, but Sasuke seemed comforted by her efforts, so she didn't complain, despite having to get used to the Sasuke sized limpet clinging to her regularly. It didn't really bother her all that much after two weeks of the behavior, and he was starting to do it less often, which the books said was either a healthy step in the right direction, or was a sign that he was pulling away and closing himself off, which was not good at all.

So many of the behaviors the books expounded on were signs of either healthy development or terrible, horrible, signs that a child was not healthy in the slightest. Akane wished the books would be more clear. Her already frayed nerves couldn't handle much more wondering if this behavior was a sign of Sasuke opening up to her and accepting his new reality or that he was breaking from said reality and getting worse.

She pushed those thoughts aside side when she reached the office.

"Hokage-sama," she said, bowing low at the waist. "You asked to see me."


End file.
